Micro

The guy's a fraud. I'd take an engraver and engrave "REJECT" on the frame. Then send it back.

LOL, when I walked out the second time I looked back and he and the salesman were fiddling with the locks on the door. I suspect they didn't want me back in.

It depends on your location. You could easily spend a couple hours trying to cover 20 miles in Atlanta traffic. Indeed. That was about an hour drive. Busch Gardens (theme park) traffic plays havoc in the Williamsburg area in summer.

I can suffer incompetence. But to try and mask it with rudeness, well, that just does it for me. Anyways, I came away better and I'm glad it worked out the way it did. Now, I may just have to do that TW thing.

I have a clunker I wanted to trade in using that Cash for Clunkers deal. I wanted to see if I could get a deal on a new Pontiac G6 for my wife. I went to Patriot Buick/Pontiac/GMC in Williamsburg, VA. That's over 20 miles from my home. I found a Pontiac G6 that I wanted. I told the salesman what I had to trade and the salesman told me my old clunker qualified for a $3,500 credit. I had to do two things to get the deal: 1) proof of continuous insurance for 1 year prior to the deal, and 2) proof the car was registered continuously for 1 year prior to the deal. I told the salesman the insurance thing was easy. I had my old policies that all showed the clunker. But I only had a current registration (I never save my old registrations). He said "no problem," he would runs a CarFax that showed continuous registration. He did run it and said it would be fine. So I left him a $100 check to hold the car and went home, and my wife and I drove our clunker back to the dealership with the insurance papers and my current registration. That's 20 more mile home, and 20 more miles back. When I walked into the dealship, the sales manager - a middle aged, overly tanned, blow dried hair, top-three buttons unbuttoned, gold chain wearing blow hard - said, "I hope you found your old registrations." I said I told the salesman I didn't have them, and I was told that the carfax he and the salesman ran was sufficient. He said, "Nope, the car fax didn't show any registration after 2005." I told him that was absurd. And, I reminded him he told me it was good to go before I left to go get my clunker. He said, "No you're going to have to go to DMV and get them to write a letter saying your car has been continuously registered." He said they would hang onto my deposit until I came back. At this point, I was fuming. I told him he could have told me the carfac was no good before I drover 20 mile home in one car, and and 20 miles back in 2 cars. He said he didn't look at it close enough. I told him to give me my check, I'd do business somewhere else. In a most condescending tome, he said "I don't know why you are mad at me. " I told him because he was incompetent. I would do business somewhere else. As I left with my paperwork, he yelled at me "your gonna run into the same problem whereever you go, PAL." At that I tuned around, walk up to him and put my finger in his face and told him I hoped the "Pal" comment was directed at the salesman, who had retreated to the corner. He said, "Yes sir." I was so ticked I was shaking. My wife and I left. We stopped at Suttle Cadillac/GMC/Pontiac in Newport News. Turns out they had a nicer G6 for sale there. I explained my issue at the previous dealer. Turns out, my current registration was sufficient after all. On top of that, the new dealer told me the Carfax the previous dealer ran was missing a page. I looke at the page numbers and sure enoug, it skipped a page and the missing page showed continuous registration. Then they gave me a helluva deal on the G6, which is now in my driveway. Patriot lost a sale to incompetence. And the sales manager almost lost some teeth for being rude to me. I swear, if buying from Patriot was the cure for a fatal disease, I'd die before going back there. Sorry for the long rant.

The 7' MH has a fast action. The 7' M has a medium fast action. That's how the site lists them and that's how they feel. The 6'6" MH has a fast action. The 6'6" M has a medium fast action. The site has the actions listed as medium fast and fast respectively, but that's wrong. The MH has a fast action, the M has a medium fast action.

The 7' MH is a fast rod. The 7' M is a medium fast rod. The 7" M is rated up to 1 oz lures. It's a excellent rod for moderate sized crank baits.

The new HMGs look really nice. I'm not sure of the "24 ton graphite" thing is good or bad, or better or worse than the old HMG. The old HMG was a great rod. I'm going to buy one more 6'6" MH/F for a new Daiwa Sol I bought.

The large splashes you are seeing are most likely gar. The river is filled with gar. Sometimes they will blow up right next to your boat and scare the hell out of you. All you will see is a big, spotted tail diving back down. That ledge you are talking about sounds like the edge of the channel. Yes, any of the deep spots are good for big catfish. However, right now, there are a lot of decent, frying-size, blue and channel cats in the shallows and they will readily hit moving baits. Next time you go to Morris Creek, think "hard structure." By far, I catch more big fish on hard structure than I do in the grass and up next to the weeds. And there is very little difference between spring, summer and fall when it comes to where the fish are. Spring and fall are the best time on Morris Creek. IMO, summer is tough. Winter is tough, too, but the bast are easy to find if you can find the balls of baitfish.

Shoot across the river and go through the thoroughfare and fish the canals in Chick Haven. The mouth at Diascund Creek. Up river to Smith Island. The dam. There's lilypad all over, fish them. Fish the docks. You'll find fish around hard cover. If you have time, go down river to Morris Creek. I've had a lot of luck with Bomber Model As in crawfish. But baits in firetiger and other bright or flashy colors are also productive. Green Pumpkin Senkos around docks should produce. Dark plastics tend to do better. The Chick is tough right now. I fished it with Sam a few weeks ago and we had some luck, but not great. His tournament there the following weekend didn't produce much. A tournament there last week didn't produce much either. It will start picking up again soon. Here's my big fish from a few weeks ago...

You don't need a date. Dan can be your date.

Can't find anything. Just who presented in 2009.

They had the Advantage-HSTA for $169. That, by all accounts, is an excellent reel. Why buy an expensive Exceller when you can get the HSTA? If then needed something new, a new color for the HSTA would have been nice, or a price cut on the Fuego.

What the heck is it about this reel? It has an unchromed black plastic thumb bar. The drag star has what looks like mold lines in it (is it plastic?). It has fewer bearings than the Exceller, and doesn't seem to stack up on paper against the Trillionaire and TD-Pro (BPS exclusive). All this and only $100 more than the Exceller. :-/

Perfect.

I can't find it on the news. Do you know what happened?

So much to plan, and so little time! Where are we gonna meet? What day? What to do for lunch? Whose coming? I'm all in a tizzy. It's just around the corner! Seriously, though. Here's the schedule. January 15 - 17, 2010 Richmond Raceway Complex Richmond, Va Hours: Friday 10am - 8 pm Saturday 9am - 8 pm Sunday 10am - 5 pm Admission: Adults $7.00 Seniors $6.00 Jr. Anglers $5.00 Admission good for all 3 days with Return pass I'm just posting this now so Burley can ask for some time off in advance. I never got that stink-palming he promised.

I love catching those. They bite fast and hard. I found one in the back of a little cove in some weeds that was feeding on fish it had coralled. I threw three senkos to it and on every cast it tore my senko off the hook. After three senkos it was no longer aneconomically sound decision to continue after it. I saw one attacking baitfish at the base of a cyprus tree. It had the little fish so worked up that were literally jumping out of the water and up the base of the tree. Here is one I caught in November 2008 that went well over 7 lbs. He took a 1/2 football jig with a Paca Craw trailer.

I looked at these this weekend. These are some friggin' nice looking and well finished rods. The end-cap on the grips is a nice touch.

Whatever you are doing, it must be appealing to fish. Now you just gotta do it in front of a bass instead of a crappie. When you catch that first bass (and it's inevitable if you keep at it), post a pic for us.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries released excerpts from their study on them. Among the interesting observations were: 1) They have not affected the bass population. 2) The prefer very shallow, very weedy, less oxygenated water. 3) Their primary prey is killifish, a small soft rayed fish. 4) Most of the largest fish captured bore wounds from osprey attacks. 5) A sport fishery has grown around them with some guides offering snakehead excursions. I wish they weren't there. But it could be worse. In fact, they seem to have made things a little more interesting.

If I want to keep up with someone, I call them. Otherwise, they can bugger off.

Everything else on TV sucks more. The level of suckage on TV is the highest I've seen it in many years.

"As Thompson sees it, any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record." LMAO ;D ;D ;D ;D

Yes, it's a Black Crappie. Not a bad little fish in their own right. Nice looking one, too.